No Time Like the Pleasant
[via NYTimes]
An article out today in the Shanghai Daily (have you noticed I’m addicted to Shanghaiist.com yet?) about the latest in the official crackdown on silly translations on Beijing street signs. This is old news, as the latest linguistic purging started as early as last year (see nytimes link above), and snarky bloggers have been making fun of these signs ever since…well, since snarky people started having blogs (see link on “Racist Park” photo below).
Asian countries somehow seem particularly adept at mangling the English language in brilliantly humorous ways, an ability variously referred to as Engrish, or when perpetrated by that most populous nation of the Far East, Chinglish. This article offers a dissenting opinion to the crackdown, quoting American linguists who are evidently a lot more amused by Chinglish than the Chinese government is:
Texas-based Global Language Monitor (GLM), which analyses word usage trends, said Beijing was fighting a losing battle and should celebrate “this delightful mixture of Chinese and English.”
["Chinglish will be no 'cryshame'" via Shanghai Daily]
I concur. This is a perfect chance for the public relations people over at the CCP to give their administration a more hip, less authoritarian air. What with the rumors of black people being banned from bars, and ethnic minorities causing a ruckus, China is seeming less like the modern world nation it’s trying (too) hard to be and more like a kingdom run by a bunch of old, humorless pencil pushers. Imagine a blog/PR campaign run by the Chinese government, not to suppress horrible Chinese-English cross-pollinations but to actually seek them out and celebrate them. The world would for once laugh with China, and not at it. Hell, I’ll even volunteer to run the blog. What do you think, Mr. Hu? As a wise fortune cookie once told me, “there’s no time like the pleasant!”
Oh, and the article finishes with a few Chinglish gems:
If you are stolen, call the police
Airline Pulp (food served aboard airlines)
The slippery are very crafty (slippery when wet)
Do not climb the rocketry (rock wall)
Deformed man toilet (handicapped restroom)
Engrish, you mean. The Japanese are equally a guilty. The only non-guilty Asians are Koreans–they only communicate in Zerg roars, though.
No, the Koreans are guilty, too, just a little less frequently and hilariously than the Chinese and Japanese. Probably because Zerg is more similar to English than either Chinese or Japanese is, linguistically.